Potsdam’s Damon Brown hit a three pointer with three seconds left on the clock to give the Bears the 61-58 victory over the visiting New Paltz Hawks on Friday night.
First year Harris Wichard led the Hawks as he tied his career high 16 points and added three assists and three steals. Junior Lee Bertram finished with 12 points and six rebounds and Connor Cornine posted a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
New Paltz trailed 24-17 with 7:31 left in the first half before going on a 10-3 run to even the game 27-27 at halftime. The Hawks led by as many as nine in the second half at 49-40 with 8:07 left on the clock. The Bears came back to make it a one point game at 52-51 New Paltz with over four and a half minutes to play. Trailling by four, Oppong Agyemang hit a jump shot to cut the deficit to two at 58-56 with 47 seconds remaining. Potsdam missed the front end of a one-and-one at the charity stripe, as Betram came up with the defensive board. On the Hawks next play, Agyemang feed junior Anthony Bevilaqua the ball who nailed a jump shot to tie the game at 58 even with 20 seconds left on the clock. Potsdam had enough time to run one final play and it proved to be enough, setting the stage for Brown’s heroics.
New Paltz falls to 7-7 on the season and 4-2 in the conference and will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Plattsburgh for a 4pm tipoff. Live Stats will be provided of the game: http://sidearmstats.com/plattsburgh/mbball
